But the conceptualist brothers Jake and Dinos Chapman, notorious since the Sensation exhibition six years ago and major beneficiaries of the largesse of collector Charles Saatchi, are the strong favourites.

Willie Doherty, who makes videos about the divisions in Northern Ireland, and Scottish decay sculptor Anya Gallaccio, best known for putting a 34-ton cube of ice in an art gallery until it melted, complete the shortlist.

Perry, also known as Claire, his transvestite alter ego, is the Tracey Emin of ceramics.

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His traditionally-shaped pots appear inoffensive. But seen close to they are etched and scratched with obscenities, phallic symbols and messages about paedophilia, child abuse and lesbianism.

Without these motifs, it is highly improbable that a potter, a mere craftsman, would have made the shortlist for the attention-seeking prize.

His lifestyle and views, however, make him a real Turner Prize trouper.

"One of my ambitions," he confided recently, "is to make the penis as popular a decorative motif as the flower."

Describing his achievements - he too has been bought by Saatchi - he said: "I got here by dressing up in frocks and mucking about. That's what artists do. They're paid to muck about."

Perry, from London, says he became a transvestite at 13, probably as the result of an unhappy childhood which saw his father walk out and the milkman move in. Reflecting his anger, his vessels have titles such as Pot for a Broken Home and Pot for Wealthy Westerner with Good Taste.

Perry - who is now married, to a psychotherapist - is often seen at London art parties in dresses, sometimes cuddling a teddy bear or a doll. He also rides a Harley-Davidson, but never in a frock.

Perry might seem a certainty for a prize once awarded to Martin Creed, an artist who flicked lights on and off. But this year's honours are more likely to go the Chapman brothers, surprisingly overlooked for the Turner before now.

The brothers, brought up in Cheltenham and taught at the Royal College of Art, have made a name for themselves with monumental tableaux about sex, violence and death.

They rose to prominence in the early 1990s with bloody three-dimensional recreations of Goya's etchings, The Disasters of War.

Another display, of child mannequins sprouting genitalia from the wrong places, was considered so shocking at Charles Saatchi's Sensation exhibition at the Royal Academy, that under-18s were barred from seeing it.

The Chapmans, who say they enjoy making cold, sadistic and cruel objects, recently sold a collection of faux ethnographic carvings satirising McDonald's to Saatchi for £1 million.

Anya Gallaccio, a Scot who was a member of the Damien Hirst set at Goldsmith's College in the 1980s, has more limited financial ambition.

Many of her beautiful sculptures are made with fruit, flowers, ice and grass but will decay before they can be bought by collectors.

Doherty, from Londonderry, is a "film noir" video artist often focusing on Ireland. In his most recent work, Re-Run, two screens show a man running forward and away on Londonderry's Craigavon Bridge.

Richard Dorment, The Daily Telegraph's art critic, described the list as "very strong" with mature artists and no surprise young Turks.

He said: "The Turner Prize has been very dull lately - more for the critics and other professionals than the public. This list takes into account that the prize should be communicating with the public. There is no painting but, on the other hand, these artists are good at strong imagery."

Exhibits by the shortlisted artists will go on display at Tate Britain on Oct 29 and the prize will be announced on Dec 7.